Pages

Friday, April 4, 2014

Her "Do Not Disturb" at Home

We are loving this A-Z Blogging Challenge so far. Here's the next letter...

Like many others today, I struggle with feeling yoked to my phone. It is my communication with the outside world, my calendar, my organizer, my alarm clock, among other things. If I am watching TV, the phone is next to me. If I am laying in bed, the phone is next to me. The only time I do not have my phone right with me is when I am teaching class.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that I was getting really distracted when I was at home and I was struggling to finish tasks. I would start folding laundry and not finish. I would start a blog post and not finish. I would start straightening up and I would not finish. I tried to pin-point why I was letting so many projects go unfinished. And then it dawned on me ---

Tweet-Tweet! (How many of you have that same sound as your text message? It seems pretty popular.) Every time I got a text message, email, or other notification, I would stop what I was doing and go check my phone. It made it difficult to get projects finished, because by the time I was done texting or checking Facebook, I forgot what I was working on.

What could I do though? I did not want to just stop using my phone, because I liked the connection to family and friends. It dawned on me that I could use the same feature that kept me from being distracted at school while I was at home. Enter ----

Now, while I am at home, I can work or play without interruption. When I am ready to see what is going on with family, friends, and the outside world, I check my phone. Then I go back to a world of silence (well...silence - minus the TV noise, and the hubbie and I talking, and the dog sometimes barking).

I am loving this new idea of mine (which I know others already do, but it is new to me). It keeps me from feeling so yoked to my phone, and allows me to get projects done without interruptions. I am so much more productive and that makes me happy. Such a simple little idea that is making a big impact in my daily life.

How do you handle the barrage of phone noise? Are you able to ignore it? Do you check it when you hear it? I would love to hear what works for you all.

14 comments:

I'm guessing this is an iPhone feature? --I don't know if my phone has a similar feature, I just put it on silence when I don't want the disruptive noise (like in church). I actually have the opposite problem. I'm bad about having my phone near me so I often don't hear my phone ring or tweet for messages.

I turn the volume down for the most part but I have to admit I have a hard time disconnecting. When the husband was deployed it was my only way of communicating with him so I got very addicted now that he is back I have to go through a bit of rehab.

For me it's my iPad Mini, which a LOVE...it sits on my lap all evening long as we watch TV. Bad habit....I am better during the day when we are out and about since we didn't get a data plan on our phone when we moved to Ecuador. So I'm reliant on free WiFi. ;)

That's a great idea! I hope you get more accomplished and manage to finish your tasks. By a quirk of fate, I'm so technologically challenged, I've never figured out how to set any of my forums, emails, or accounts to notify me. I guess I'm better off, right?(new follower!)

I work at home and I work production (medical transcription) so if I'm not on the keyboard working, I'm not making money so I have to minimize distractions. I silence my phone so it doesn't make any sounds and just check at lunch time and breaks. Otherwise I found myself always wanting to check things when I heard its "buzzer". I love the technology of the phone but I don't want the phone to ever "own" me or "rule" over me, if you know what I mean :)

Hubby and I both have really (over five years) old phones, so it's a little different with us. We disabled the texting feature on both of ours. We also have times where we put the phones on silent, sometimes for several hours at a time. His work schedule is insane, so our time together is very limited. I know it sounds a little harsh, but we don't have children, we aren't responsible for anyone else, and we don't have the kind of jobs (nor are we paid enough) where we need to be accessible 24/7, so we aren't. We're much happier that way as individuals, and as a couple.

I know that I'm an oddity these days, but...I don't always have my phone with me. When I have to go shopping, more often than not, it gets left in the car. When it starts making noises, if I don't want to talk, I just hit the button on the side and it goes silent. However, when the kids are away from home, I answer their ringtones that announce who is calling me. I grew up in the days before cell phones, so I don't panic too much if I accidentally leave it at home, though I do need to be more careful about that as we live in an unsafe town.

My husband's phone is the noisiest, so if we're trying to sleep, he often just turns his completely off.

Great post ! It's so true that our lives literally revolve around our phones and laptops. My work as an event & wedding planner means I have to be available to clients across time zones. However I've learned that it's OKAY if I keep my phone on silent or leave it in the other room just to get some personal time in.

My D post was for Detox - and it would do us all good if we managed to get some digital detox into our lives as well !

Sean and Amanda

We have been married since March, 2002 and blogging since May, 2012. It is something we both enjoy doing and it is a fun activity for us to share. Click on the "His and Her Background Story" page to learn more about us and our blog. Thank you for visiting!

Who's Sharing?

If you are new to our blog, WELCOME!! To make our posts easier to navigate, purple means Amanda is sharing, red means Sean is sharing, and blue is for both of us. Enjoy!